Red Five
by equine02
Summary: Poe, seriously injured, is helped by a young pilot. PRE-THE FORCE AWAKENS. Non-slash.
1. Battle

**Summary: Poe Dameron, injured behind enemy lines, is helped by a young man he barely knows.**

 **Hello!**

 **So lately I've been churning out fics left and right for old TV shows such as Combat! and Rat Patrol. I felt like doing a Star Wars fic, because I had searched around, and found almost no fics in which Poe Dameron was hurt in any way. I thought I might fix that. My debut Star Wars fic, so please be nice! No slash, rating for injury, you know the deal.**

 **Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own them. I'm not making any money off of this.**

His breathing became raspy and faint as he lay in a pool of his own blood. The grey-green landscape loomed around him, and he shuddered in the immense cold. He wasn't on a cold planet- why was he shivering? The pilot glanced to his side. A Stormtrooper's dead body was pinning down his hand and gun, and for all he was worth, Poe couldn't seem to get him off. The blood loss was making him weak.

 _Stayawakestayawakestayawakestayawake…_

His gulped in another meager breath of air. His dad was going to kill him if _this_ didn't.

 _Don'tsleepdon'tsleepdon'tsleep…._

Why did the air feel so thick and dry? BB-8. Where was his little droid?

 _Stay….'wake…_

His mind was racing but his body begged for blissful darkness. Fall asleep and die from exposure and blood loss, or stay awake and die of shock and blood loss? Before he could make up his mind something sharp pressed against his neck, and hands were picking him up. Before he surrendered to sleep, he felt himself being carried.

* * *

(flashback)

"Black Leader to Gold leader. Come in. Over." Poe adjusted his speed to max standard, the fastest he could go without pushing into hyper. "Gold leader come in. Over."

"I read you Black leader. Over." There were a series of short, exaggerated breaths over the comm-link. "I'm hit. Not too bad." More breathing and the clicking of mechanisms, "Taking her down to the M-class. I'm comming for reinforcements. Over."

"Roger that. Take care of yourself, Rig."

"Copy that."

Poe smiled grimly and pulled up, away from a TIE fighter, switching his comm-link off for a moment. The fighter's green laser fire penetrated the blackness of space. Here, there were few stars. They each held respective places in the sky like monarchs, never dying despite old age.

"Plan B." Poe muttered. His switched his comm-link back on, "Black leader to Red Five, Red Five come in, over." The pilot executed a sharp turn and squeezed off several shots, grazing the TIE's fuselage.

A moment later, "Red Five here. Over." The link let off a spurt of static, "what's up?"

"You and I are pulling down to the planet. Rig- er, Gold Leader, is already down there. The rest are going to handle this up here, and we're going to take out those cannons. You copy?"

There was a long moment of silence. "Copy that, Poe."

"BB-8? We're going down there, suit up." Poe said to his droid.

BB gave a succession of beeps and trills and secured a small circular device to his antenna. It would scan for toxins in the air.

Poe pulled an oxygen filter over his nose and mouth and turned his full attention to piloting the ship down to the planet. If they couldn't take out these cannons from the sky, they'd have to do it on the ground.

(end flashback)

* * *

"Black Lead- um, Poe?"

"Ahhhhh," he moaned sharply, eyes darting to the face of the other pilot. "Where… are we?"

"We're on the planet. You were shot."

"Shot…s'bad?" he guessed. The pain sure wasn't _fun_ , at least he knew that.

"Yeah Poe. It's bad. You shouldn't move around. I'm going to go find BB-8." Red Five watched the man's expression as he realized his droid was missing, "right now LT-6 is giving you a transfusion."

"A transfusion?" Poe was too tired to ask where he got the blood to do it. Red Five's droid was sitting on his left side, feeding blood through a clear tube into his arm.

"Yeah, lucky for you, we've got the same blood type."

"Mmmm." He let his eyes close.

"You just rest, I'll be back soon."

Poe felt something cold and heavy placed against his arm, and Red Five's hands pushing his fingers closed around it.

"W'hat'sthat?" he slurred.

"My blaster, Poe. You might need it."

"You'needitmore."

"Thanks, but you keep it. I'll be back before you know it." The younger man smiled for the sake of Poe's morale, touching his comrade's shoulder. "Don't move while I'm gone."

"Cross my…. heart." Poe gave his own weak smile and made the motion of crossing his heart, though it hurt more that he thought it would. "An' hope to die."

"Yeah, well let's not try that today." And then he was gone.

* * *

(flashback)

Poe's legs were burning. He'd never run so much or so far in his life. At least it felt that way.

Red Five…he was racking his brain… what was that kid's name? They'd met before, but only once, and Poe had been either drunk or exhausted. Probably both.

Though the sound of cannon-fire was too close for comfort, BB-8's quips could be heard as the droid rolled behind his master. Poe almost smiled- in some ways, his counterpart was like a dog.

Behind him, Red Five was past the point of "trigger happy," and more like "I-hope-I'm-hitting-something." Laser fire spewed from his blaster with rapid abundance. Fool kid was going to run down his charge.

They got to the cannon's just in time to see them launch off another immense blast of laser fire. Poe stumbled back, falling. He felt the radiation in the most awful way.

Once flipped himself over onto his stomach, he crawled over to Red Five, who was sprawled out on the ground. "You okay?"

"Fine. Just the after shock…thingy." He blinked, sitting up, "What's the plan?"

Both men gave a few coughs before any more words were said. The air felt unbelievably thick. BB-8's scanner was beeping madly. Even with the oxygen filter's on, the toxins seemed to take hold of their lungs. When Poe was finally able to speak, he said, "We're going to take out the *cough* the uh, cannon power base. See that generator? Should be in there. One of us is going to plant the explosives, and the other is going to cover."

"I'll plant the explosives."

"What?" Poe was surprised.

Thinking he hadn't been heard, Red Five yelled, "I'll plant the explosives!"

"Okay." Poe replied, still a little shocked. The kid had guts. He raised his blaster, "I'll cover you."

He didn't remember much in those next few seconds. Confusion, Stormtroopers, explosions… it was mingled. He did recall getting several shots off before something hot hit him in the chest, and he fell backwards for the second time.

This time, he did not get up.

(End flashback)

* * *

Poe found himself in a lovely place called sleep. That, or unconsciousness. He wasn't sure he cared, it felt so good.

Suddenly there was something wet on his forehead, and though he was very cold, he felt that he didn't have a shirt on. _What is that kid thinking? I'm freezing, give me my shirt!_

He shuddered. Blinking, Poe opened his eyes slowly. He was met by two tired looking-green ones. They searched his face.

"Poe?"

"Yah," he whispered.

"You got a bad fever. You need to sleep, but you've been drifting- I don't know what to do… what do I do? Should I give you something?" he sounded scared, even though the oxygen filter.

"M'fliter." Mumbled the pilot.

"BB-8 is fixing it. It got broken pretty bad…." He slipped his off and gave it to Poe who responded with weak gratitude. "Poe, what can I do?"

"Gimme…. a shot." He didn't like how slurred his words sounded in his head, so loud.

"Of what?" Red Five rifled through the small medical kit he'd had strapped to his waist.

"Morphine?" replied Poe groggily. Red Five was taken back.

"They don't use that anymore. I put bacta on the wound, but it's not helping. There's ah, there's _Axo- phrinaphin?_ and _Oxiniogen_? What are those?"

Poe, too weak to answer, tapped the Oxiniogen with his pointer finger. "S'leep." He whispered.

"Oh, is this a sedative?" the kid looked clueless. "I hope so, and God, please strike me down if it's not."

He hesitated only slightly before administering the medicine through a thin needle. A medieval way to do it, but the fastest. Otherwise, Poe would have to wait hours while the administration patch slowly let out the medicine. The pilot needed it now.

* * *

(flashback)

Once the explosions had cleared, he started to look for Poe. Dead Stormtroopers littered the ground. He could only hope Poe was alive, though the chances seemed slim.

"Poe!"

He found the man lying with one arm under a dead 'trooper, and the other covering a patch of blood on his chest. He'd been shot, and a few inches over would have instantly killed him. Bacta couldn't fix this.

Quickly administering a pain-killer via needle, Red Five picked up the man and started to carry him. It was too far to get back to the X-wings, he'd have to wait for a transport. If Poe got worse, he'd try to find one, but that was his last resort.

He eventually found a cave that seemed to have been chiseled not by nature, but man, from a hill, or what outwardly appeared to be one. In truth, it was a large, smooth rock with grass growing on top.

He lay Poe down inside and checked his pulse.

Behind him, LT-6 announced BB-8's absence. The younger pilot swore low under his breath. If that droid was found by the First Order… there was nothing BB-8 didn't know about the Resistance. His sensors processed everything he heard, and he was trusted to keep those secrets. But one wire taken out or put in could reveal everything they'd been planning for months, years. He had to find the droid. But first, he had to keep Poe Dameron, best pilot in the resistance, breathing.

* * *

(still flashback)

"BB!" Red Five whisper-yelled. He wasn't sure if there were troopers any more, but he knew he the chances were slim of him finding the little droid.

His heart nearly stopped in his chest when he heard a voice.

"…down?...X-wing…..BB-8….is he?"

The voice was muffled, but it sounded familiar.

He began to run towards the voice, and soon BB-8's trills sounded out too. Rushing into the clearing, he nearly fell over in relief. Next to a slightly charred X-wing, holding a comm-link in hand, stood Gold Leader, with BB-8 at his feet.

"Rig!" he grinned. "Hurry up, Poe's dying!"

"So BB here says," the pilot told him, hurrying to pick up his gear, including the precious Comm-link. "Show me."

 **Please stay tuned for a short epilogue! Thank you so much for reading this, reviews are always appreciated**


	2. Aftermath

**Disclaimer: I don't own them.**

Epilogue

Poe opened his eyes very slowly.

His head was buzzing with mixed up events, all sorts of things he couldn't figure out. He turned to gaze upon a stiff-looking medical droid, who's facial design was surprisingly human.

"Poe Dameron, you are awake. It is good to see your eyes again." It spoke like a human too.

"Thanks." He rasped. The droid helped him drink some water, and went about checking his pulse, brain function, adrenaline levels, and wounds. He let his eyes roam around the room- everything was blurred, probably because he was on some _very_ good pain killers. But he could tell that most of it was white- except the droid, who was a dreary gun-metal grey, and another shape… Red Five, of course. The young man brushed locks of sandy-brown hair out of his eyes and smiled. Poe watched as he sat down, helmet under hand.

"You look horrible." Poe told the younger pilot.

"You look worse."

They shared a moment of silence. Red Five finally looked up.

"Welcome back, Poe Dameron."


End file.
